RFI Musique: Where did the inspiration for your "one concert, one school" project come from?
Tiken Jah Fakoly: The project developed from the experience I had doing a series of concerts across France with a charity organisation I set up. We used the profits from the shows to build a high school in Dianke, in northern Mali, and a primary school in Touroni, in the north of Ivory Coast. The idea for the project was triggered by an encounter with a bunch of local kids when I was shooting a video in Touroni back in 1997. I remember being surprised by the number of kids hanging around while we were shooting because it was Monday morning and I asked them why they weren't at school. They told me their school was miles away! So I went to see the village chief and promised him that one day I'd return and build a primary school right there in the village so the kids wouldn't have to do that fifteen kilometre trek every morning! So instead of looking to outside aid, you prefer to encourage local audiences to get involved in rebuilding Africa?
On my next album, African Revolution, I repeat my message again - and that message is that no-one is going to come in and change Africa in place of Africans themselves! People who buy a ticket to one of my concerts will be making a direct contribution towards the building or rehabilitation of a school. Live on stage, in between songs, I'll be talking about issues like education, female circumcision and a lot of other things our generation needs to think about and revise…
Where are you planning to take your Un concert, une école tour?
The first leg of the tour will include concerts in Guinea, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. Once we've laid the foundations of the first schools I'm convinced we'll get other sponsors on board. They'll soon see how serious we are. Next, after a mini-tour of the Indian Ocean islands in May, we'll be heading back to Africa to perform in Mali, Togo and Niger and so on. By the end of my career, I hope to have built a school in just about every country in Africa. This is my way of promoting the idea of African unity and getting my message across - and that message is that development cannot happen without education!
At the beginning of this year you released a mini album, entitled Radio libre, in Africa, but it's only available in some countries, not others…
I needed to express how I felt about certain events such as the military coup in Mauritania and the historic election of President Obama... I couldn't wait until my next official album. The reason I called my mini-album Radio Libre was because I didn't even tell my record label what I was up to. I needed to say what I had to say right there on the spot because I know that the people I'm singing for wanted to react but didn't necessarily have a voice to do so.
Is this tour and your new album a sign that you're turning back towards Africa now?
Well, it's certainly true that since my career took off internationally, I haven't been able to devote as much time to Africa as I would have liked. Every time I've been invited to perform in concert there I've gone, but I would definitely like to have performed there more often. A lot of people in Africa have come to see me as a bit of an anti-establishment figure, so concert organisers often prefer to invite someone more mainstream. But I know that all is far from well and that it's the people who've put me where I am today. So it's important for me to defend the people and behave as their mouthpiece rather than conniving with forces that manipulate and exploit them.
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Changement historique
